Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Exclusive First Hands-On Preview [IGN]

It’s been ten long years since Dragon Age: Inquisition and the expectations for the next game in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, seem impossible. A full decade, a bevy of behind-the-scenes changes, cuts at BioWare, and a somewhat divisive start when its unveiling began in earnest in June made me a little worried for my most highly anticipated game of the year. But one of my biggest concerns was my impression, based on early previews, that it was headed in the direction of being a linear action game rather than its more open-world predecessor. While Dragon Age is known for changing its style with each installment, I hoped dearly that it wouldn’t lose too much of the DA DNA I fell in love with.

After hours of hands-on time spread across two days, I’m pleased to say I walked away with excitement and curiosity, but mostly, relief to wave many of my concerns goodbye. My time with The Veilguard covered a wide smattering of things: the incredibly expansive character creator (more on that later), the introductory quests, a faction mission, and a companion quest a little deeper into the game. But I was mostly pleased with my ability to just explore Northern Thedas in all its gorgeously designed glory, experiencing a setting in Dragon Age lore that we’ve really only heard about.

To be clear, The Veilguard isn’t the open-world playground that Inquisition was – as game director Corinne Busche has previously stated, it’s more “mission-based.” But what impressed me after the first few hours was how much exploration can still be done in the various regions, as well as the impact the player character, Rook, can have on those regions. Consider it something of a mix of Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition – the more streamlined approach of the former with the rich, geographically and sociopolitically diverse world of the latter.

Of course, some of the bigger artstyle, combat, and gameplay changes will be subject to personal taste. But after my time with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I left feeling like these ten long years just might’ve been worth the wait.

Getting Acquainted

As fans have already seen from the first gameplay trailer, players are dropped right into the city of Minrathous in the middle of the action as Solas prepares a ritual that will devastate Thedas. Luckily, our old friend Varric has recruited you to help, and it barely takes a couple of minutes for the game to put the focus on Rook. After a surprisingly effective and succinct story recap from Varric, there are a number of aspects The Veilguard starts easing you into.

For one: the combat. Gone are the days of Dragon Age: Origins’ more CRPG-inspired tactical system, offering a style that’s a mix of quick action and a mechanic where you can pause and pull up your radial menu. While this absolutely does take some getting used to, and it’ll be a gradual process to create what could be a highly customized build while learning all your companions’ different abilities, it didn’t take me long to actually start having fun with it.

I largely played mage and rogue builds during my hands-on time, and also quickly started to lean on certain companions’ abilities. For one, the mage healing ability was essential – for one particularly difficult Revenant, I basically established a pattern where I was only using Bellara’s mana to heal me, dodging and playing it safe when it got too risky. Neve’s ability to slow time was also one I kept returning to, offering a bit more control on the battlefield when the situation got fast-paced. As for glass cannon builds, you’ll want to have a warrior around to taunt your enemies out of your way.

Like a whole lot in The Veilguard, combat revolves around your companions, even though you can’t fully take control of them like in previous Dragon Age games. Different companions have different combo options together, and there are certainly opportunities to build team synergy. Oh, and you’ll want to listen to your companions in combat too, as they’ll occasionally drop some useful hints.

But combat aside, your dialogue choices, your Rook’s background (tied to one of six factions you can choose), and the consistent decisions you make are immediately important, which shouldn’t be too surprising for fans of BioWare games. The dialogue wheel is back, of course, as is the approval/disapproval system, but I was surprised to see that The Veilguard actually explains the consequences of some of your dialogue choices in very clear terms. It’s a variation of the “so and so will remember that” system, but more specific.

Take, for example, my first confrontation with Solas, aka Fen’harel aka the Dread Wolf. I chose a more sarcastic, humorous approach with him, and at the end of our confrontation, text on the side of the screen informed me that I have “traded verbal jabs with Solas.” It was far from the only occurrence of this sort of text, and it leaves me curious as to how your relationships with various characters will build and branch out over time based on your attitude.

Speaking of consequences, it quickly became clear to me that there would consistently be tons of choices in The Veilguard that’ll have lasting results. It probably seems like I’m stating the obvious here, but I got the sense that even more of these kinds of choices might be peppered throughout than the usual BioWare game. Right at the beginning, for instance, I made a decision that led to Harding getting injured, and she remained bruised-up for the remainder of the next couple of hours. I felt like a real jerk about it, and that was probably the point; Dragon Age: The Veilguard seemed to be telling me, right from the start, that I’m going to feel like a jerk a lot. Without spoiling too much, you’ll be able to see some of your progression and choices in the environment around you as well.

But, once introductions were out of the way, it was time to explore the wide world of Thedas and see its past and present collide.

(Veil)Jumping Into the World

As mentioned earlier, one of my biggest worries was that The Veilguard could end up being more linear in its approach, trading branching gameplay for a straight line. And sure, the opening hours – essentially, the tutorial zone – are a little railroad-y, save for a couple of key decisions you have to make. But once you’re past that and more established within Act 1, you’re much more free to tackle quests as you please as you unlock more and more regions.

You do this via The Crossroads. For those who aren’t brushed up on their Dragon Age lore, that’s a nexus between the waking world of Thedas and the metaphysical realm of The Fade through which the ancient elves would travel through magical mirrors called Eluvians. You now use the Eluvians for that same purpose, and to unlock new regions, you have to fight through certain areas of The Crossroads before you can start fast-traveling to them.

Unlocking said regions opens up a vast network of areas and, not unlike past Dragon Age games, they’re dramatically different from one another. Take, for example, the Arlathan Forest, a gorgeous, colorful region whose aesthetics mix greenery with elven magic. You can see nugs burrow into the grass, magical artifacts abound, and there’s a vast array of nature to simply just admire. You’re hit with a massive tone shift, however, when you head to Hossberg; currently under siege by the Blight, here is where you’ll see some of the more horror-inspired aesthetics and, frankly, just some of the grosser aspects of the Blight. While The Veilguard’s tone certainly leans more high fantasy in places like The Crossroads, don’t worry; those who miss the gore and dark fantasy of Origins will find that too in places where the Blight has spread.

But I couldn’t help but spend a lot of my time just running about in Treviso, the bustling city that’s home to the Antivan Crows faction. For one thing, a lively city feels like a novelty in Dragon Age. But there was simply so much to explore that I kept getting sidetracked – a merchant with unique items here, a new quest to pick up over there, a random combat encounter here. And that’s just when I wasn’t looking around for a cat or dog to pet (because yes, you can pet the cats and dogs).

Outside of the cats and dogs, there are some unique ways to interact with the environment too. Each companion has an environmental ability, some of which came in quite handy for me. In my time in the Arlathan Forest, I frequently called upon Bellara, whose environmental ability allows her to tinker with magical artifacts. In a nice quality-of-life addition, your companions don’t even need to be in your party in order for you to use these abilities. (As an aside, another one of my favorite quality of life additions is the fact that party banter pauses and picks up again later if you trigger combat, a cutscene, or anything else that would interrupt their dialogue. That’s right – no more awkward standing around in order to hear the complete conversation).

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, the difficulty and accessibility options do allow for about just as much or as little hand-holding as you need. For example, with one Antivan Crows quest I was doing, I could turn the navigation on and simply follow the game’s guidance, or turn it off and look for clues in the environment to follow – in this case, The Crows’ purple symbol, painted on certain walls. I also just happened to be playing an Antivan Crow Rook while completing this quest, which led to some fun dialogue options.

Once I was in the thick of things, I could clearly see the “okay okay, we heard the complaints” features in The Veilguard. Specifically, addressing the infamous Hinterlands Problem, a reference to the first open-world area players visit in Inquisition. The zone was packed with more than 50 sidequests, many of which boiled down to mere fetch quests, and left many players drowning in a bevy of checklists that felt inconsequential to the story. The Veilguard has boiled this down quite a lot – you’re still free to explore, but the scope isn’t nearly as dizzying, and the quests point back to the main story, a region or faction, or a companion.

Another clear reaction to criticisms of Inquisition are our villains in The Veilguard, Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain. The two elven gods feel much more present throughout the events of the early game than Corypheus, the frankly lackluster baddie of Inquisition.

While there’s a whole lot more Thedas to see and talk about, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring it back home to The Lighthouse.

The Base of Operations

The Lighthouse will likely be the most important location of The Veilguard, serving as the hub for you and your companions. Each one of your companions has their own room, and conveniently, a light shines outside of their door when they have a cutscene available. Once you get further into Act 1, it certainly starts to feel more lived-in, and you can discover some pretty charming character quirks. For example, I found that Manfred, Emmrich’s skeletal assistant, enjoys spending time on the balcony, and I even got a few games of Rock, Paper, Scissors in with him.

It’s also, obviously, where you’re able to do some housekeeping, especially when it comes to The Caretaker. This wildly helpful spirit is always standing by to help you enchant and upgrade armor for you and your companions.

But I found The Lighthouse somewhat symbolic of one of the biggest challenges this game is facing: bringing in new players while honoring the now incredibly vast lore that Dragon Age has built across the games, comic books, short stories, and more. Basically, if you were worried that the name change from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf would mean less Solas, think again – his history, along with the history of the Evanuris, are baked into The Lighthouse, and you learn more and more about the threat you face as you unlock Solas’ murals with various wolf statues. You even get to see some of his memories firsthand.

As a lore nerd, I very much appreciated this, as well as the various other callbacks to series history. The Origins fans will likely love the Grey Warden-heavy quests, and we already know the Inquisitor (the protagonist from Dragon Age: Inquisition) will be involved in some way, as you can recreate them and select your world states in the character creator. But I do wonder if it’ll overwhelm new players, which BioWare seems to be courting with its action-heavy combat system.

That’s why it helps, at least, to have something of an outsider like Rook to take the helm of The Veilguard. Plus, the scrappiness of Rook reminded me a bit of playing as Hawke in Dragon Age 2, rather than the more “chosen one”-esque protagonists of the Warden in Origins and the Inquisitor in Inquisition.

In short, a lot’s changed in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but there was so much I was relieved to see stay: the focus on companions and romance, the rich lore, and a gorgeous world to explore. Needless to say, there’s still a ton of The Veilguard that I haven’t seen, especially if it’s as big as Origins and Inquisition (and it certainly seems like it). But after finishing my preview, I found myself even more eager to dive into it – and much more hopeful that this could be the hit BioWare needs.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.